Cheese Database

Akkawi vs Nabulsi cheese

Akkawi

Facts

Texture
Semi-soft
Type
Brined
Rind
No rind
Country
Cyprus

Akkawi is a white brine cheese linked with Cyprus and with the wider Levant. The block is pale, smooth, and semi-soft, and it has no rind. It sits in salty whey so it will keep, which makes the first taste quite salty. A soak in fresh water pulls some of that salt out before cooking or a meal. What remains is mild, milky, and a little elastic.

Nabulsi cheese

Facts

Milk
Mixed milk
Texture
Semi-hard
Type
Brined
Rind
No rind
Country
Levant
Place
Nablus

Nabulsi cheese is a firm white brine cheese from Nablus, in the Levant, made from sheep's milk, goat's milk, or a mix of the two. Makers boil the curd and season it with mahlab and mastic, which sets it apart from a plain salted white cheese. The block has no rind. It is stored in brine, so the first bite is salty. After a soak, the spice and the milk flavor come forward.